When you begin a new venture you have the best ideas in mind. You really think that your business will have all the customers it will need to sustain itself. Reality is something else. August was Brutal!

I can say that I was forewarned, so many business owners said to me that August was not when people shopped, that they all leave town or don't walk outside in the Texas Heat! Jeez I was hopeful that I could be different...no, I was right up there with their expectations.

Rusk and I began this venture with the idea that we'd have a place to showcase our travels and share with our community the beauty we have seen. The truth is its a lot harder to share than we expected. I wish I could say that people flocked to the new contemporary boutique in their neighborhood, no they didn't. We have to work super hard at attracting traffic, although I feel that our items are one of a kind, that's not enough.

We keep on going.

We assess what we love and what we have to change. We also seek out advice. We have contacted other people who know us to help us with establishing our concept and thus the "Alicia" brand.

My heart and soul is at the heart of this shop. Shopping local means so much more to me now, it was always important but now its essential. I hope that people can take my open heart and embrace it because this is what my boutique is to me. It's the culmination of years teaching in the public schools, the community college with adult learners, public university with young adults.

When It is about having an outlet for my love of teaching and my love for all things unique..you just keep going!

The counter is in! We found this particular counter at the Total Display Fixtures store on Harwin and Fondren. The day we went to purchase our sales person suggested we go to another place for a more significant discount.. he allowed us to use his contact to get it sooner and cheaper. Nonetheless we purchased and they delivered the next day after much discount with the delivery guy who wanted to bring it the following week. I was leaving out of town there was no one to help, however my mother in law stepped in and she signed for it.

April 2015

Our first local artisans begin to bring their unique items. Finding local artists was not easy, but I sought out my friends Veronica and Marcella and they sent over some wonderul artisans. I've found that I love seeking out the talent and placing them on a platform where they can showcase what they do. Feeling so awesome!

April 2015

Our first clothing boxes have arrived. I had previously spoken to two wonderful boutique owners who advised on attending the Dallas Market which happened to be occurring the following weekend. I had to reconfigure my schedule so that I could attend on a Full Day Friday. I took off at 5 am in to be at the expo on time, I came prepared and ready to shop. Rusk took care of all of the boy's school duties and they sent their best wishes via text that morning. The boys are getting as excited for me as I am for all the fun happenings. To say I returned exhausted is an understatement, thankfully Rusk had a beautiful glass of wine waiting for me.

April 2015

Our lounge is taking shape. Andrea and I went to two different places to find the right sofas and upon a lot of searching we went with one from IKEA and one from Modani. Each were on sale so we got them at that moment, we love finding stuff on sale.

UNICO is a small company that specializes in assembly for IKEA which is where purchased most of our items. They were amazingly fast and super polite. True professionals. Happy we found them.

Delivery Day! Our ordered furniture is here and ready to be assembled. Thanks to my amazing Designer Andrea Pinzón from Organika Smart Design, we found the most important items. She spent quite a while developing a plan that suited my vision and located all the materials and resources. Andrea is an angel sent from Heaven!!

Adding a tiled floor to a concrete slab took longer than expected. I had in mind a very specific color for it but finding it in my budget was difficult. Thankfully Rusk called a favor from a friend who'd been by the shop a few times and he was more than happy to give us his contractor's discount and pricing. We loved it and he became my new best friend!

Our floors in preparation mode. Our diligent tile people had the huge task of tearing out an old carpet that had been in for over ten years. They came in and prepared for about a week, it was worth all that work!

This is what we saw when we first arrived to the space! We had been searching for a place to lease in the Memorial Eldridge area but encountered high rents and exorbitant triple nets. One afternoon Rusk came home early and stated that we would be out to find the locale now! We had no time to waste and as we drove by on Dairy Ashford we took a quick look and noticed a "For Lease" sign...what? Really? I say to Rusk this place is available!! I can't believe it, I've been driving by for years and had often wondered about it, and here is was waiting for me. We immediately called the number and a lovely lady named Courtney answered, we set a date to meet for the following week. I was anxious, what if it was way too expensive, what if it was already under contract with someone else? Well, it wasn't and we signed the papers two days later. She gave me my keys and our journey began!

How it all got started...

This crazy idea that I could have my very own boutique and studio started when I returned from Croatia last summer filled with wonderful gifts that I'd found in small charming boutiques in Dubrovnik. I'd always taken pride in finding cool little pieces that were relatively inexpensive yet super unique.

For years, I had been absorbing the ways of these little places and could easily find them at the next place I visited. I wanted something like this back home and I knew that I had it me to create it for myself. Rusk and I had been wanting to open another business after 16 years of running the River Oaks Goodyear, and it seems that with the turn of the year we made a note that this was THE year. We had prepared for years, we had saved and had studied all the possibilities, we knew the time was right and this was the right fit for us!